AN elderly woman, confronted in her own home by a burglar in the middle of the night, is so terrified that she now barricades herself in her own home at night.

The burglar, Luke Roberts, was jailed for 20 months at Mold Crown Court after he admitted burglary at his home village of Coedpoeth near Wrexham.

His victim was a woman of 68 who lived alone and who suffered ill-health.

She was so terrified by the burglar that she handed over her laptop computer to him after he forced his way into her home.

The court heard how she had lived happily at her home for 40 years without incident.

But in a moving victim impact statement read to the court she told how her health problems had not been assisted by what happened.

She described how she had taken to barricading the back door of the property and the living room door at night because she was so afraid that it would happen again, or that his friend would come to exact revenge on her for reporting the incident to the police.

Judge Niclas Parry told him that it was a “disgraceful example” of dwelling house burglary.

It had reduced a decent, elderly, vulnerable lady to “literally having to barricade herself in her own home” such was her distress and fear.

“You entered her home at night. She was woken up. There was a confrontation,” the judge told him.

Roberts, 33, of Heol Maelor in Coedpoeth, had terrified his victim so much that she handed over her property.

Prosecutor David Mainstone told how the victim had suffered a cardiac arrest last year and had spent some time in rehabilitation.

On August 6 in the early hours she heard a noise, believed someone was in the house, put all the lights on and stood at the top of the stairs and called out to whoever it was to leave.

She heard a voice and initially thought it was her son and she went downstairs to find a stranger who had got in by smashing glass in the kitchen door.

He told her “I just want my computer” and she handed over her laptop valued at £100.

“The defendant was not satisfied with that and asked for the charger as well,” the prosecutor explained.

She handed that over as well and he left. It was later discovered that a television view box had also been taken.

Police attended and found her in a distressed state, she gave officers a description and he was arrested nearby.

The stolen property was found in his home.

Justine McVitie, defending, said that her client was realistic about the outcome and knew it was a case of how long the prison sentence would be.

“My client remembers very little of the incident due to the combination of alcohol and drugs,” she explained.